One problem facing people in today's information age is managing the volume of information that each person receives, reviews, stores and/or passes on to others. While computers and other electronic devices assist in these tasks, electronic forms of communication and duplication have themselves supported an explosive increase in the volume of information transmitted within the home and workplace. Experts describe people experiencing adverse physical and psychological affects of managing an ever-increasing volume of information as suffering from “information overload.”
One aspect of information overload, for example, is an inability to locate a document or a portion of a document containing information of interest. Often, a person generally recalls seeing the information but cannot recall the specific content and wishes to review the information again. Regrettably, the location of the information is not known. Therefore, a search of electronic and/or printed copies of documents is performed to locate the information. As can be appreciated, this inefficient handling of information consumes time and generally leads to frustration.
In an attempt to increase the efficiency by which information is stored, individuals often employ customized naming conventions for storing electronic and printed information in electronic folders and/or filing cabinets. The aim of the customized naming convention is to describe information stored in the storage system to facilitate more efficient retrieval. While a naming convention may assist a first person that develops the convention, a second person or persons seeking access to the stored information typically does not understand the naming convention. This lack of understanding is particularly troublesome when the first person is not available to explain the convention and the second person needs the stored information to complete a job task. One example of an unavailable person includes an occurrence when a person leaves a job and a next person assumes responsibility for the job. Such responsibility includes locating and managing previously stored information.
Systems and methods exist in the art for managing information storage. For example, FIG. 1 depicts a simplified block diagram of an information management system 10 as is known in the art. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of sources 20 provide information to receivers of information 30. Sources 20 include, for example, paper 22 and electronic 24 information provided by hand delivered mailing systems such as, for example, internal office mailing systems, carrier services such as the U.S. Postal Service and FEDERAL EXPRESS® (registered trademark of the Federal Express Corporation, Memphis, Tenn.) or the like, and electronic systems such as, for example, email systems, time management systems, software application programs such as MICROSOFT® WORD™ (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation, Seattle, Wash.) and LOTUS® NOTES™ (registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation, Cambridge, Mass.) or the like. The receivers of information 30 include, for example, individual addressees 32 of the provided information that take receipt by hand or electronically via a computing device 34 such as a portable electronic device such as, for example, PDA, laptop computer or the like, personal computer, work station or terminal coupled to a mainframe computer. It should be appreciated that it is within the scope of the present invention for the computing devices 34 to broadly define all standalone and networked computing devices as are known in the art.
As noted above, information of interest to the receiver 30 is typically stored in at least one of a plurality of storage devices 40 for subsequent retrieval. Storage devices 40 include, for example, filing cabinets 42 for storing hand delivered information and/or printed copies of electronic information, electronic records 44 in files or database formats residing within memory devices (e.g., hard drives and other memory devices of the aforementioned computing devices 34).
A number of computer software applications running on the computing devices 34 provide mechanisms for storing and managing data. However, the inventors have found a number of deficiencies in such systems. For example, the use of such conventional systems typically yields divergent and counter intuitive data structures having information stored in non-standard and often incompatible storage devices. As noted above, stress and frustration increase as individuals attempt to find information of interest within these systems.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional data storage paradigm 50 wherein computer software applications and manual business processes (referred to collectively as information inputs 60) direct information to a user. The user evaluates the information and typically stores it in a data store. In the data storage paradigm 50, the data store corresponds to a process by which the user receives or evaluates the information. Since the user receives and evaluates information in a number of different ways, a plurality of unconsolidated, divergent data stores 70 are created. The divergent data stores include, for example, electronic files and data bases to paper-based filing cabinets. Generally speaking, the data stores 70 are created “on the fly” and, whether electronic or paper-based, include data stored in alphabetically ordered sequences.
Manufacturers of computer software applications have created many different kinds of data storage shells. In most cases, these shells are designed to hold only the data created by a particular software application. For example, a pre-set storage location for MICROSOFT® WORD documents in a WINDOWS® operating system environment is a hard disk file folder referred to as “C:/My Documents/WORD.” Similarly, email is generally stored within the email application's hanging file folder system. In addition to these electronic applications, users may have manually stored information in, for example, filing cabinets, on their desktop, and on bookshelves. The inventors have observed that the aforementioned application/process specific storage locations contribute to the number of divergent data stores (e.g., stores 70) and make it more difficult for users to locate information within an increasingly large number of places. The resulting “clutter” contributes to the aforementioned “information overload” syndrome that is a challenge for almost every knowledge worker in the world.
While some computer software application such as, for example, Microsoft Corporation's WINDOWS operating system and EXPLORER file management system provide a frame of reference for accessing data stored in differing file folders by most software applications, there appears to be no common portal or universal data structure available to users. Complicating the conventional data storage paradigm (illustrated in FIG. 2), the inventors have observed that most employees have no rules or standards for their individual storage structures 70. As a result, each employee's storage structures, which include their library of stored documents, are unique and highly customized. The lack of storage rules and resulting high degree of customization is seen to cause the following business challenges:
(1) When an employee leaves an enterprise their successor(s) find it extremely difficult to understand and manage inherited information because only the departing employee understands their individually customized data storage structure.
(2) The lack of rules or standards causes most storage systems such as, for example, corporate data servers, and individual libraries of knowledge to degrade over time. One cause is that the vast majority of employees have no system of “breaking ties” between documents that could be placed in one or more folders within their data storage system 70. Another cause is that ninety-nine percent (99%) of employees do not appear to have a system in place that allows for a uniform data structure to be applied across all storage platforms (e.g., electronic and physical data storage devices).
(3) It is difficult to tell an employee where to put an important file or document because everyone has his or her own customized filing system. Similarly, it is difficult to advise an employee how to name files in a logical standardized way.
(4) Rarely does the typical person separate personal and professional documents within electronic and physical storage devices. As a result, a greater number of documents must be searched through before a document of interest can be located.
Efficiency experts market file management seminars and/or guides such as, for example, products and services of the Franklin Covey Co., Salt Lake City, Utah USA. However, there appears to be no entity that markets or teaches a specific, universal, concrete, and tangible information structure that is not employee, industry, or business unit specific. Most marketed data storage classes and systems help users to create a customized filing structure that matches their chosen vocation and storage style. Such filing structures are seen to include, for example:
(1) Data structures created for a specific individual, industry, vocation, or group.
(2) Data structures created “on the fly” by well intentioned individuals, the structures are customized in the sense that they have been slowly constructed over time in a fashion that even their creators find difficult to navigate after a predetermined period of time.
The inventors have found that the vast majority of these teachings do not direct trainees to merge or synchronize email hanging file folder system with other electronically stored information such as, for example, documents within a “C:/My Documents” hard drive directory to facilitate formation of a central data repository. As a result, employees are tasked with managing multiple and divergent data stores such as, for example, email hanging file folders, hard drive documents, various computer applications with separate data storage locations, filing cabinets, bookshelves for manuals, CD Rom libraries, etc., as illustrated generally at 70 of FIG. 2. There appears to be no existing product designed to synchronize, organize, and pare down these divergent structures. Since there is no guidance for organizing storage structures the inventors have found that there are almost as many divergent knowledge storage structures as there are people.
Accordingly, a need existing for systems and methods of providing a universal knowledge, information, and data store to simplify the process of storing and retrieving information and increasing personal and professional productivity and quality of life. As described herein, the inventors have discovered that such systems and methods based on the human thought process and the free enterprise model provide an efficient storage structure.